Lions mum on QB's status

NFL

November 10, 2010|DAVE BIRKETT Detroit Free Press

DETROIT -- Detroit Lions coach Jim Schwartz on Tuesday morning declined to address a report that quarterback Matthew Stafford has a Grade 3 separated shoulder, a slightly worse injury than the one he suffered to the same shoulder earlier this year. "We don't share results of MRIs or anything else with members of the media or anybody else other than the player and the staff here," Schwartz said in his weekly radio show on WXYT-FM (97.1). "Matt wasn't able to finish the game; he was very sore, and we'll get him back on the field as soon as we can. And that's been our approach with reporting injuries from the very beginning." Booth Newspapers reported that Stafford suffered the Grade 3 separation when he landed on his shoulder while scrambling away from a sack with 5:19 remaining in Sunday's 23-20 overtime loss to the New York Jets. Stafford is out for at least this week's game against the Buffalo Bills and probably longer. He missed five games with a separated shoulder earlier this year and is awaiting a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews on the results of the MRI exam he took Monday. Schwartz also defended Stafford's injury history again, saying all four of the injuries he has suffered in his first two NFL seasons -- Stafford missed time with injuries to his knee and left shoulder last year -- came in competitive situations when the quarterback was trying to make a play for his team. "If it was the same injury that was nagging him, I think maybe you could say a little bit more injury-prone," Schwartz said Tuesday morning. "But these are completely different injuries. His other shoulder injury was healed, so it's really not an aggravation of an injury, it's a new injury. He's re-injured his shoulder, but it's a new injury. "Matt's an incredible competitor, and I don't have any worries about his ability to stay healthy." Schwartz addressed several other topics during his radio appearance, including his confidence in third-string quarterback Drew Stanton, who could start Sunday against the Bills. "Drew's made a lot of plays at the end of games. He kept us in the Giants game, and other than a fumble by one of his wide receivers, had us in a position where we were down four late in that game to go in and have a chance to win on the road with the Giants. So we still have a lot of confidence in Drew. We just need to find a little better way to finish those games." Rice: Autograph came after warning Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice says he was pulled over by a police officer Monday night for the tinting on his car windows, and insists he only offered the officer an autograph after being issued a warning. Rice deleted a comment from his Twitter account that made it sound as if he avoided a ticket because of the autograph. He said Tuesday he wasn't granted any special treatment because of his status as an NFL player. Rice says he offered to sign the autograph "after the warning." He says he made a "bad decision" by writing about it on Twitter. Rice's tweet said he "gave the officer an autograph for his son and he let me go." Cowboys back online The Dallas Cowboys website is back to normal. The team apparently failed to renew registration of the dallascowboys.com domain name and the site was replaced Sunday night with a generic page for Network Solutions LLC, the Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday. For a time Monday, a day when coach Wade Phillips was fired after his team started 1-7, the website had an image of two children playing soccer. Dallascowboys.com was back up on Tuesday. Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple said he had no information about the website registration. He says that when the website "goes down every now and then, they usually get it right back up again." The Associated Press contributed to this report.